Canadian boxer Mary Spencer will get to compete at London Olympics

While Canadian boxer Mary Spencer had one uncertainty resolved on Monday, when she finally received word she had won a wild-card berth to the London Olympics, it seems she will have to wait a little while longer for the answer to another question.

It is still not known for sure whether Spencer’s long-time coach, Charlie Stewart, will be chosen to work in her corner when she fights this summer, as women’s boxing makes its debut at the Olympics.

“A lot of that is out of our control, because there are only so many spots for accreditation, but we will do our best to make sure that he’s in the corner,” Boxing Canada president Pat Fiacco said Monday.

Canada has also qualified two male boxers, Simon Kean (Trois-Rivieres, Que.) and Custio Clayton (Halifax), and coaches Daniel Trépanier and Sylvain Gagnon are expected to be on a staff with Stewart.

Only two coaches can be in the team’s corner, though. And Robert Crete, the executive director with Boxing Canada, said the team will make those decisions when it convenes for a pre-Olympic training camp in Ireland.

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“It’s hard to say,” he said. “I believe Sylvain Gagnon and Charlie, that’s my perception. But as the time goes on, it’s a decision that they will [make] at the training camp.”

Concerns have been raised by at least one person close to Spencer’s camp about exactly where Stewart will fit when the lights go on in London this summer. Stewart said he has always been able to work her corner, but was not concerned about how the duties might be distributed in London.

“They have rules, and you’ve just got to abide by the rules,” Stewart said. “If I can get in, that’s fine, but if I can’t, I’m not that disappointed.”

Spencer lost control of her own Olympic destiny last month, when she shocked Canadian Olympic officials by losing her opening match at the world championships in China. The 27-year-old fell 18-11 to Sweden’s Anna Laurell, losing her chance to qualify for the London Olympics with her own hands.

The wild-card berth was a bonus, a final shot at redemption.

And they made her wait for the news. The decision — which Crete said was made by the International Amateur Boxing Association and forwarded on to the International Olympic Committee for final approval — was expected on June 11. But then it was pushed back a day, and then another, before finally arriving on Monday.

“There is no back door,” Fiacco said, pointedly, during a news conference at Spencer’s boxing club in Windsor. “All athletes going into this Olympics Games and the women’s championships knew the two ways in which they were going to qualify for the Olympic Games.”

He paused for a beat.

“Next question,” he said.

Spencer was never supposed to be in that position. A three-time world champion, she was dominant for stretches at the Pan American Games last fall, when women’s boxing made its debut. She beat a fighter from the United States so badly that her opponent left the ring in defeat, and in tears.

Spencer went on to win gold, and was Canada’s flag-bearer for the closing ceremony. A trip to London seemed almost assured, and not just to the coaches and colleagues inside the Windsor Amateur Boxing Club.

Own the Podium, the Canadian sports funding initiative for amateur athletes, has invested $140,000 in Spencer over the last two years. She rewarded that investment by beating one of her toughest opponents at the Canadian championships in January, emerging with an 18-12 win over one-time friend Ariane Fortin to advance to the worlds.

And then, in April, she lost.

Spencer was routed in what was supposed to be a tune-up event for the worlds, falling 27-14 to Claressa Shields, a teenager from Flint, Mich. Some close to Spencer say that loss — and the fatigue from a busy schedule — factored into her troubles in China.

Canadian officials actually submitted the names of three boxers for wild-card spots, with Sandra Bizier and Mandy Bujold added to the list after losing at the worlds. Neither was awarded a wild card on Monday.

Crete said there was no room for lobbying any of the international organizations, even for Spencer, whose absence would have been keenly felt in Canada, where she has become a face for her sport. The Canadian Olympic Committee had already erected billboards with her image as part of a broader marketing campaign heading into London.

“We only submitted her name and our rationale for why she should be selected — and, of course, we sent her history,” Crete said. “There is no presentation done, whatsoever. You just send in the information in a letter, and after that, it is the international body that looks at all her records and things like that.”